Dear brethren in Christ, below you have Zenit.org’s working translation of the Pope’s General Audience Catechesis given on April, 19, 2017. In it, the Holy Father reflecting on the St. Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians reminded us that Jesus himself is our hope and his resurrection is the event which is the foundation of our faith.

We meet today in the light of Easter, which we celebrated and continue to celebrate with the Liturgy. In our itinerary of catechesis on Christian hope, today I wish to speak to you of the Risen Christ, our hope, as Saint Paul presents Him in the First Letter to the Corinthians (cf. chapter 15).

The Apostle wishes to settle a problem that surely was at the center of the discussions of the community of Corinth. The Resurrection is the last argument addressed in the letter but, probably, in the order of importance, it is the first: everything in fact rests on this presupposition.

1. Christianity is not an ideology but a journey of faith that begins from an event witnessed by Jesus’ first disciples: His Resurrection, which is the heart of the Christian message.

Speaking to his Christians, Paul starts from an incontestable event, which is not the success of a reflection of a wise man, but a fact, a simple fact that intervened in the life of some persons. Christianity is born from here. It is not an ideology; it is not a philosophical system, but a journey of faith that begins from an event, witnessed by Jesus’ first disciples. Paul summarizes it thus: Jesus died for our sins, was buried and on the third day He rose and appeared to Peter and to the Twelve (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:3-5). This is a fact: He died, was buried, is risen and appeared, namely, Jesus is alive! This is the heart of the Christian message.

2. Christ’s death is not an act of faith but a historical fact. To believe in Christ’s Resurrection, yes, is an act of faith.

Announcing this event, which is the central nucleus of the faith, Paul insists above all on the last element of the paschal mystery, namely, on the fact that Jesus is resurrected. If in fact everything was finished with the death, we would have in Him an example of supreme dedication, but this could not generate our faith. He was a hero. No! He died but is risen because faith is born from the Resurrection. To accept that Christ died and that He died crucified, is not an act of faith; it is a historical fact. Instead, to believe that He is Resurrected, is [an act of faith]. Our faith was born on Easter morning. Paul makes a list of the persons to whom Jesus appeared (cf. cc. 5-7). We have here a little synthesis of all the paschal accounts and of all the people who entered into contact with the Risen One. At the top of the list are Cephas, namely Peter, and the group of the Twelve, then “five hundred brothers” many of whom could again give their testimony, then James is mentioned. The last one of the list – as the least worthy of all – is he, himself. Paul says of himself “as one untimely born” (cf. v. 8).

Paul uses this expression because his personal history is dramatic: he was not an altar boy, but a persecutor of the Church, proud of his convictions; he felt himself as a man who had arrived, with a very limpid idea of what life is about with its duties. However, in this perfect picture — everything was perfect in Paul, he knew everything — in this perfect picture of life, one day something happened that was absolutely unpredictable: the encounter with the Risen Jesus, on the road to Damascus. Not only was he a man who fell to the ground there: he was a person gripped by an event, which would have turned upside down the meaning of life. And the persecutor became an Apostle, why? Because I saw Jesus alive! I have seen Jesus Christ risen! This is the foundation of Paul’s faith, as it is of the faith of the other Apostles, of the faith of the Church, of our faith.

3. Christianity is not so much about our search for God but rather God’s search for us.

How lovely it is to think that Christianity is, essentially, this! It is not so much our search in our relations with God – a search, in truth, so vacillating –, but rather God’s search of us in our relations <with Him>. Jesus has seized us, He has gripped us; He has won us, never to leave us again. Christianity is grace, it is surprise, and for this reason it presupposes a heart capable of amazement. A closed heart, a rationalistic heart is incapable of amazement, and cannot understand what Christianity is. Because Christianity is grace, and grace is only perceived and what is more it is found in the astonishment of the encounter.

And then, even if we are sinners — all of us are <sinners> –, if our good resolutions remain on paper, or if, looking at our life, we realize we have added many failures . . . On the morning of Easter we can do as those people that Gospel talks about: to go to Jesus’ sepulcher, see the large stone overturned and think that God is bringing about for me, for all of us, an unexpected future. To go to our sepulcher: we all have a little of it inside. To go there, and to see how God is capable of rising from there. There is happiness, joy and life here, where all thought there was sadness, defeat and darkness. God makes his most beautiful flowers grow amid the most arid stones.

4. To be Christians means to receive God, who has defeated our worst enemy and His love for us.

To be Christians means not to begin from death, but from God’s love for us, who has defeated our severest enemy. God is greater that anything, and only one lit candle is enough to overcome the darkest of nights. Paul cries out, echoing the prophets: “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” (v. 55). During these days of Easter, let us bear this cry in our heart. And if we were asked the reason for our given smile and our patient sharing, then we can answer that Jesus is still here, that He continues to be alive among us, that Jesus is here, in the Square, with us: alive and risen.